Jørgensen, Aage; Workshop IHans Christian Andersen between tradition and modernity, with special reference to the fairy-tale Dryaden (The Dryad)For Hans Christian Andersen, the physicist H. C. qrsted ­
who discovered electromagnetism in 1820 and thereby laid
the foundation for the technical progress of the century ­
was a kind of guarantor that an underlying 'spirit' would
also leave its mark on the modern period. That is how
Andersen saw the way things were developing when he was a
guest at the home of M. Drewsen, whose paper factory in the
newly founded city of Silkeborg in mid Jutland, struck him
as a true Wirtschaftswunder. In the fairy tale Great
Grandfather, the main character discovers the positive
qualities of modernity and donates money for a monument to
qrsted. But in Thousands of Years from Now, what is
emphasized is the superficial and a lack of spirituality ­
'America's young inhabitants' travel the full breadth of
the traditional culture in just a week. The author's
ambivalence culminates in The Dryad, A Fairy Tale from the
World's Fair in Paris 1867. The wood nymph is drawn from
her natural setting into the big city, but must pay for
this with her life. Here the urban is associated with the
unnatural, with restlessness, rootlessness, moral decay,
sinful lust, etc., and ultimately with godlessness.[hide abstract]

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